THRAN - In a veiled reference to the countries that have normalized ties with Israel, a veteran Iranian politician warns Tehran will respond in kind to any attack on its security from any neighboring country and a “direct response to Israel”.“Targeting our security from neighboring countries will be met with a response to those countries and a direct response to Israel,” Kamal Kharrazi, the head of Iran’s Strategic Council on Foreign Relations, said in an interview with Al Jazeera published on Sunday.Kharrazi, however, said Israel is in a state of weakness and U.S.

President Joe Biden’s support for the regime would fail to bring it back to the fore.The comments by Kharrazi, Iran’s former foreign minister, came a day after Biden concluded his visit to Israel and Saudi Arabia.Kharrazi said Iran has carried out extensive military drills to demonstrate its capability to hit targets deep inside Israel in the event “our vital and sensitive facilities are targeted.”During the interview, Kharrazi also said Iran seeks regional talks with the participation of important countries such as Saudi Arabia, Turkey, Egypt, Qatar, and other states.He noted that Qatar has made important proposals on holding dialogue among regional countries and that Tehran has expressed its full readiness in this regard.Kharrazi also welcomed recent remarks by officials in Riyadh to extend a hand of friendship to Iran, saying Tehran is ready to enter into dialogue with Saudi Arabia to restore relations to normalcy.Iran and Saudi Arabia are two important countries in the region and resolving their differences would lead to major changes in West Asia, the veteran politician remarked.Saudi Arabia severed diplomatic relations with Iran in January 2016 after Iranian protesters, enraged by the Saudi execution of prominent Shia cleric Sheikh Nimr Baqir al-Nimr, stormed its embassy in Tehran.

The move was condemned by senior Iranian officials, including Leader of the Islamic Revolution Ayatollah Ali Khamenei.Kharrazi also rejected allegations that Iran has intentions to build nuclear weapons, saying this is while the Islamic Republic possesses the expertise, such as increasing the level of uranium enrichment from 20 percent to 60 percent, Press TV reported.Leader of the Islamic Revolution Ayatollah Khamenei has banned production of nuclear arms.  Kharrazi also dismissed any possibility of talks about “our missile program and our regional policies,” saying any negotiation on the two subjects would mean submission to the enemy.Regarding the indirect negotiations with the United States to revive the 2015 Iran deal, he said it is difficult to conduct a direct dialogue with Washington in light of a thick wall of mistrust due to hostile U.S.

policies toward Iran.He added that there are no guarantees that the U.S.

would continue to honor the 5215 Iran deal, officially known as the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA), if the agreement is resurrected, and “this prevents any possible agreement.”Iran and the U.S.

concluded two days of indirect talks, mediated by the European Union, in the Doha, Qatari, late last month in an attempt to break the stalemate in reviving the JCPOA.At the end of the talks, Iran and the EU, which plays a mediatory role, said they would keep in touch “about the continuation of the route and the next stage of the talks.”The talks in Doha followed seven rounds of inconclusive negotiations Vienna, Austria, as the U.S.

insisted on refusing to undo its so-called maximum pressure policy against Tehran.